Not a Coincidence!

God works in mysterious ways – especially when you commit your writing to Him.  I pray every day that God will bless what I write, but more importantly, that He guides my thoughts when I sit at the computer.

I am currently editing, and revising  (as needed) the novel I’m working on. This is a very frustrating process, at least for me. So many details that have got to be fine tuned. Grrr!

My heroine is from a small town and I chose the state of Washington. Some events take place in Seattle and Yakima, which are larger, more well-known cities. But I needed a small town. I googled  “small towns in Washington population 1000-1500.” I got a list and from that list, I researched each town. There were certain criteria I needed, so I started eliminating accordingly. Last on the list was Yacolt, which seemed to have all the qualities I wanted.

I went with Yacolt. But the more I edited and revised, I wasn’t pleased. I needed more information about Yacolt, mostly pictures of the town. I couldn’t find any. How could I have my heroine walk from school to the drugstore to her home unless the town was laid out as so? Could she swim in a pond in a town where there wasn’t one?

Finally I gave up and gave my town a fictitious name.  Now I wasn’t happy, but at least I could make the town how I wanted it. I looked with sorrow at my little fictitious town. Every other city or town in my novel is real.

I sell on Ebay and sold a little Fisher Price toy yesterday. When the payment came through, I almost fell over. I was shipping to a lady in Yacolt, WA. What were the chances? I fired off an email and she replied, asking me to consider keeping Yacolt as my little town. She sent a wealth of information about their sweet town. It is perfect!

It pays to pray over all that we do.